Frozen Water
by NushiKasai
Summary: Beside a lake of ice, Tobirama remembers encountering a very strange, pink-haired woman. One-shot


**TIME TRAVEL YAY**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, nor will I ever.**

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The ice was still fresh.

He stood at the edge, and calmly brushed his hands against the rough, rugged material of his armour as he began to re-evaluate his work. The lake was frozen solid, at his deliberate touch, and it stretched to every edge, every drop of water until all that remain was its whole form joined in temperatures far below the survival rate of the average being.

The man tilted his head, and a small smile of satisfaction crossed his lips; pulling until his cheek brushed against the edge of his helmet. A man of war, it was always necessary for him to be fully clothed and geared when travelling outside the boundaries of the village- who knew what could befall him?

He paused suddenly as something flickered across the edge of his vision; a burst of colour that stood out as a sharp contrast to the greys and whites of the day beside the mountain. A satchel sat against a tree covered in snow, but beside it were neatly folded layers of bright red clothing.

_Clothing with no owner to be seen. Next to a lake._

_In retrospect_, Tobirama thought as he whirled back around to face the lake that he had frozen solid, _it might have been smarter to check whether the lake was devoid of swimmers before I turned into an ice cube._

He reached the edge and furiously tried to quickly counter his jutsu, as his eyes scanned the surface of the lake in search of hands pounding furiously against the ice, but none was forthcoming.

What if he'd killed someone? Hashi would kill _him!_

_Crack!_

The sound made his head snap up and look to where it had come from, and was half relieved and half horrified to see a large crack slowly making its way through the surface. He assumed that it was his jutsu wearing off, and was content to let it happen gently.

He was proven wrong though, when the entire surface of the ice suddenly collapsed from the bottom up with a loud shattering sound. His eyes widened, and he leapt back as large blocks of ice went flying through the air and smashed into the surrounding terrain.

"What the hell?!"

If he was shocked before, the sight of a beautiful naked woman wading into the shallows of the lake clutching a slightly bleeding hand certainly shocked him further. What was someone else doing so far out of Konoha?

Before his eyes, the woman held her hand- which must have been injured from the tremendous smashing of the ice surface- and chakra seeped into the wound; healing it in seconds. He was surprised, and rather impressed.

Then he realised that it was probably rude to be staring, but to be fair, it was difficult to look away. Her hair was short and vibrantly pink, but dampened as it was, the length made it nearly reach her shoulders in the more layered sections. Her figure was slender, but obviously strengthened- judging by the force of her hit.

It was at that moment that she caught sight of him.

Four things happened at once.

He raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, she raised hers in a not-so-peaceful gesture, she rushed forward to attack, and her foot was caught against the edge on one of the larger debris icebergs- courtesy of her punch.

Her eyes widened, before she went sprawling back into the shallowed of the water; her head submerging underneath the surface, and her hair spreading out around her like discoloured blood. Despite his embarrassment, Tobirama was immediately concerned, but wary. She'd just tried to attack him (granted, he had been looking at her naked body).

She emerged, and glared fiercely at him, but was content with concealing her body underneath the dark water of the lake. He frowned and saw green chakra enveloping her body, and realised that she was raising her body temperature to suit the water so that she wouldn't freeze to death in her naked form.

They were silent for a moment; neither really knowing how to best proceed.

"You froze the lake?" Her voice was low but begrudgingly impressed. No matter how much inconvenience it had caused her, it was still quite powerful.

He ignored her though, and narrowed his eyes at her lowly. Yes, she was a woman, but that did not make her any less a possible threat.

"Who are you?" Tobirama asked, the suspicion rife in his voice as he looked at her- _her face._

"Don't dodge the question!" She growled back at him, and they settled into somewhat of a glare-match; both incredibly stubborn and unwilling to answer the questions posed to them. Finally, though, the woman rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. "I'm Haruno Sakura, from the…Whirlpool village."

There was hesitation there, he noted, which made him assume it was a lie. Sure, her hair was pink, and he'd heard of incomplete dominance in genetics mixing before, but it was easily just as untrue as it was true.

"I made the jutsu," he answered her earlier question, and then turned his head to the side, where the clothing and satchel still rested against the tree. "Are they yours?"  
She followed his gaze and her gaze sharpened on her belongings, though there was something else in her expression. Something almost…fearful.

That was curious.

"Yes," the woman replied, beginning to edge forward in the shallows. "Yes, they are, and I would respect some privacy to redress, if you wouldn't mind."

He narrowed his eyes as she emerged from the water again, and her body was displayed to him once more. He adamantly removed his gaze from any areas of…inappropriateness, and cleared his throat stubbornly.

"I'm not done questioning you," he told her, and crossed his arms as she approached her belongings. "You could be a spy for another village, and it would not be advisable for me to let you out of my sight."

The woman laughed sardonically as she zipped up a strange sort of armour- flimsy, red sort of thing- and turned to face him as she unashamedly donned her underwear. As she jimmied into a pair of what appeared to be black short pants suited to cling to the body made of shiny material, she narrowed her own eyes at him.

"You're the one who froze ice across my head," she accused him with a growl, as she moved onto her skirt. "You were the one attacking me."

He frowned and then shook his head, knowing that that was not the case.

"I assure you, I was experimenting with a jutsu," he insisted, a scowl crawling across his face. As a scientist of sorts, it never meant well when his trials had difficulties. "I meant you no harm."

She rose with a flick of her slowly drying hair, and on her face was an accepting smile. She slid on a few armbands up until her elbow, and finally finished her dressing with black gloves that covered the knuckles perfectly with padding- padding that he realised protected her from the pain of using the brute strength she had used earlier.

"And I mean you none," the woman replied to him , as she knelt down and slung the strap of her satchel- the one that she had panicked about- over her shoulder. "Let's call a truce; you go one way and I go the other."

He could try to keep her with him by force, but his eyes shifted down to the gloves on her hands. She had been able to smash through his strong ice with bare skin and in freezing cold temperatures. That was formidable at most, but he had also seen her heal wounds- something that made a battle very tricky.

Now was not the moment to face such a foe.

"Perhaps that is agreeable," Tobirama nodded slowly, a frown deepening on his face as the woman breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing he noticed about her, it was that she was very open and easy to read. That meant she obviously wasn't strictly trained as ninjas were back in Konoha- they were trained to hide emotion. He couldn't help but feel as though she had more to say though; as though there was more to her than she was letting on. A deal was a deal, though and he was nothing if not respectful. "But if I see you again, I will get answers."

She smiled at him, turning her body slightly in preparation for departure. Before she left, she tossed one more parting comment over the top of her shoulder.

"And I will get mine."

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**Thanks for reading! This was an answer to a prompt: **_TobiramaSakura meeting at a frozen lake. _

**Please drop a review and feel free to go to my Tumblr (definefreakforme) and send me a prompt! :) **


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